The Aftermath and Moving Forward

So I've been feeling pretty blue about how that race turned out.. to the point that I have had to consciously remind myself that I did, in fact, earn that medal that I so excitedly show off in the video below this post.  I'll get over it, but the great thing about this sport is that you can just keep going.  There's always another race in which you can redeem yourself (to yourself, in most instances) just around the corner, and there are always long term goals to keep your focus on, to just keep your head pointed forward rather than down.

So immediately upon getting home from the race on Sunday, I jumped on the old interwebs and scoped out a few redemption races as well as a fun races to take up my next few weeks.

May 15th: Superhero Half Marathon Relay, Morris, NJ.

May 21st: 5K, Bridgewater NJ.

June 5th:  Seven Bridges Road Half Marathon, Tuckerton, NJ.

The relay is just to boost my racing confidence again, really.  And to have a bit of fun.  I intended to do the half on my own when I was first figuring this out, but I don't want to burn out and hurt myself, as this isn't the race I want to truly focus on.  Kevin and I are going to run this one together, and it will be fun to feel like a team, as we both haven't had that feeling since high school lacrosse.

The 5K is just for fun.  A few friends will be running this one and it's in a familiar park to me.  It'll just be a nice day and some good speed work.

The HM in Tuckerton is my true redemption race.  I'm giving this one my all and I'm hoping to walk away with a time and experience that I can be proud of.

I also have a race in July that I'm really excited about as well, but I'll talk about that later.

There are a couple of things I want to focus on right now to help me out in the long run (pun not intended):

• Core Strengthening.  I have been doing a lot more core work than I have in the past, but my posture while running is still not what I want it to be and my lower back tends to hurt on longer runs, so I just want to strengthen up my back and abs.  It certainly can't hurt.
• Hamstrings.  I pulled my quads pretty badly in the race and after doing some analyzing and thinking about it, I think it's because they have been over compensating for my weaker hamstrings.  I just need to give the back of the leg a bit more focus.
• Shin splint prevention.  I've looked up some stretches and exercises to keep my shin splints at bay, as I want to increase my mileage and intensity A LOT in the next few months and don't need those little devils getting in my way.  I'm actually sticking to these exercises and they seem to be doing something.
• Gait.  My left foot lands completely neutral, but my right swings out and lands at an angle and my foor over pronates a good bit.  I want to focus on bringing this foot more into a normal movement so that I can graduate onto neutral shoes and maybe prevent shin splints further.
• More focused tempo runs.  Tempo runs might be the most important part of the week, and I think I got lazy with them in the past.  I also want to add more legs of speedier miles into my long runs.  I want to bring up my pace in all race distances, so I obviously need to focus on this kind of training right now.

Also, I'm going to try and start doing more yoga.  Controversial topic, but I think that it is a practice that keeps runners more injury free.  And it's pretty relaxing.  Win win.

The past few days I've been jumping right back into things and I'm feeling pretty good.  I'm enjoying every step of my run for what it is.  I feel kind of renewed after that bad race.

Specifics on what I've been doing the past few days... My quads were hurting pretty badly the day after the race so I took the day easy, went for a walk, and stretched out in the sauna.  They still hurt on Tuesday but I pushed myself out for a run anyway, and it actually felt fantastic.  I ran 4 easy miles and woke up the next day with all quad pain gone.  I ran 4 easy again today and tomorrow I might do a bit of speedwork.  I'm feeling recovered and pretty strong.  Running just feels really good right now and I'm excited to get to work on these races.

Ah, and before I forget it, this here is a quote that helped me pick my head up a bit at points when I was feeling extra shitty about the end of that half marathon in the past few days:

"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." 
- Steve Prefontaine

That'd be all.  Happy Running, readers.